June 7, 2012

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As I wandered the Redbull House of Art grand opening searching for pretty girls to take pictures of, the words of the attractive, remarkably similar looking, slightly older woman mentioned in the first part of this series echoed in my soul:

"Where IS this going, Noah?"

If I was to theoretically fill The People of Detroit solely with pictures of attractive women sure it would be awesome, but what would that mean the project was? Would I have to re-write the Mission Statement? Change the name to "The Pretty Girls of Detroit"? How pervy would that be?

I snapped to consciousness and realized I was standing in the middle of the crowded exhibition hall, Camera in hand. Shivering. Lightly-misted in a clammy, cold-sweat of shame.

I had to rectify my errant ways.I looked across the room and spotted someone who was not a pretty girl. I approached.

"I'm doing a photo project. Thus far tonight, I've only taken pictures of pretty girls. I need to take a picture of a dude, because I don't want to seem pervy..."

The young man seemed sympathetic to my plight. Turns out, not only was he not a pretty girl, he also was one of the fantastic artists on exhibit in the gallery. His name is Jeff Risk.He's pictured here in front of a collection of modular panels he created – each adorned with vibrant, iconographic art that I thought was really awesome.

Check his work out at the gallery, buy a few pieces, and tell him the guy who's not a perv sent you.

Noah Stephens founded The People of Detroit Photodocumentaryin April 2010 as a counterpoint to media fixated on despair and disrepair in the storied birthplace of American auto manufacturing. Since, TPOD has received national and international attention. Portraits from the project have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek and other national publications.

In early 2011, a creative director saw the project online and hired Noah to shoot an ad campaign for McDonald's Corporation in Shanghai, China.